Badger's Demise

The Welsh Assembly has approved a cull of badgers, in Pembrokeshire, in an attempt to stamp out the spread of Bovine Tuberculosis. Why is this cull necessary?

I was at a petrol station in West Wales a couple of weeks ago and saw a cattle lorry full to the brim with cows. I wondered where they were going to. I also wondered if any of the cows were carrying TB, even though they all looked quite healthy.

Why is the disease called Bovine Tuberculosis and not Badger Tuberculosis. Yes, you have guessed it, the principal carriers of Bovine TB are cattle and not badgers. The cows are spreading the disease to the badgers not the other way around. Of course, we must support the farming community; but why must wildlife suffer when there is a possible conflict between the natural environment and farming? A small percentage of badgers have been infected with Bovine TB and no doubt small percentages of rats, rabbits and other animals are infected too. So why just pick on the badger's? Perhaps they are an easy target.

Mankind has got a dreadful record of slaughtering wildlife "competitors" to agriculture and animal husbandry. This killing is often justified on dubious scientific and moral grounds. Eagles have been persecuted because farmers have seen them eating lamb corpses, but quite often they are "carrion feeding" on animals that are already dead. Buzzards and other indigenous birds of prey have been wiped out from substantial areas of the UK because they threaten game bird species, some of which are introduced aliens. Bears, Wolves and Lynxes have been completely eliminated for similar reasons. Anything which seems to threaten the economic usage of animals or plants is wiped out. Sometimes these threats are very small.

We live in a very rich society; and yes, some Eagles do take live lambs but it does not threaten any farmer's existence and we can afford to pay compensation.

But back to the badger's; what would happen if they too were of economic importance? We would no doubt find an alternative solution. We could learn a few tricks from human disease control. We have vaccinated our population against TB. We have improved human sanitation and our living conditions to such an extent that tuberculosis no longer poses a serious problem. What is good for the humans is also good for cows. A vaccination programme will probably reduce the infection rates in both cows and the wildlife population.

The life of cows is also becoming increasingly stressful. Is there a need to herd thousands of cows into a barn to be milked three times day? Why are we transporting live animals long distances in crowded conditions? Improved animal husbandry would also help to reduce infections.

We are a rich and resourceful society we can afford to improve the living conditions and health of all animals on the farm. Lets do that and leave the poor badgers alone.